Since your character's stance determines which weapon you're wielding and which talents are mapped to your primary controls, it's going to be the most important decision you make during combat. Playing Anjali as a kicking, staff-swinging human is a much different experience than playing her in the ranged combat-oriented fire elemental stance, so you'll always want to make sure that you're in the most useful stance for the environment that you're in. It's also important to switch between stances to make sure your health and focus (mana) don't get too low - you might find that some of your abilities are great for keeping enemies at bay, but only the game's base attacks will replenish your focus. There are also green (health) and blue (focus) orbs to be nabbed from fallen enemies, but based on my experience, you'll need to come up with a good rhythm of stance switching to maintain a healthy character. Remember, there are no potions!

In addition to your repertoire of attacks, you can also make use of blocks and dodges. Dodging saved me from certain death on a couple of occasions and blocking tends to be very useful, as it will cause the blocked attack to damage your focus rather than your health. Regardless of how often you mix up your attacks, blocks, and dodges, you'll always know how effective your strategy is, as the screen is filled with hovering damage numbers and large screen-shaking "CRITICAL" alerts whenever a critical hit is scored.